2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming
"The year is 2084: a literary anniversary of sorts, but these days, Mother Nature makes Big Brother look like child's play. Framed as an oral history, Dr. James Powell's novella depicts the late 21st-century by channeling many voices, from across the inhabited world, to describe the catastrophic effects of global warming. Powell's fictional narrator aims to model the inimitable Studs Terkel, but the resulting overall tone instead recalls the best of pulp science fiction from the 1950s: here a dash of Arthur C. Clarke's penchant for understatement, there a taste of Asimov's subtle bait-and-switch. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Powell's most moving chapter is "Nanuk" ("Polar Bear"), but not because, circa 2084, global warming's poster-beasts only survive in the zoos. Rather, the chapter ends with a single, elegant question of booming resonance: 'What will people do with the last Native Eskimo?'" --Jason Kirk, Amazon
Buy 2084 for $1.99 as an Amazon Kindle Single. (It is an e-book, not a print book. Click on the link above to order; read it on an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Kindle, iPad, iPod, or Windows phone. Information on the reader software here. You don't have to have a mobile reader; read it on your Mac or PC. )
See here for reviews.
"The year is 2084: a literary anniversary of sorts, but these days, Mother Nature makes Big Brother look like child's play. Framed as an oral history, Dr. James Powell's novella depicts the late 21st-century by channeling many voices, from across the inhabited world, to describe the catastrophic effects of global warming. Powell's fictional narrator aims to model the inimitable Studs Terkel, but the resulting overall tone instead recalls the best of pulp science fiction from the 1950s: here a dash of Arthur C. Clarke's penchant for understatement, there a taste of Asimov's subtle bait-and-switch. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Powell's most moving chapter is "Nanuk" ("Polar Bear"), but not because, circa 2084, global warming's poster-beasts only survive in the zoos. Rather, the chapter ends with a single, elegant question of booming resonance: 'What will people do with the last Native Eskimo?'" --Jason Kirk, Amazon
Buy 2084 for $1.99 as an Amazon Kindle Single. (It is an e-book, not a print book. Click on the link above to order; read it on an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Kindle, iPad, iPod, or Windows phone. Information on the reader software here. You don't have to have a mobile reader; read it on your Mac or PC. )
See here for reviews.